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When people argue about precise meaning of words they often ignore the fact that words can be polysemantic (in fact, most words are). It's totally fine that the
by kgeist 3y ago
When people argue about precise meaning of words they often ignore the fact that words can be polysemantic (in fact, most words are). It's totally fine that the word "engineer" in "civil engineer" and "software engineer" has different meanings.
Meanings of "engineer" according to Merriam-Webster:
1. a member of a military group devoted to engineering work
2. crafty schemer
3. a designer or builder of engines
4. a person who is trained in or follows as a profession a branch of engineering
5. a person who carries through an enterprise by skillful or artful contrivance
6. a person who runs or supervises an engine or an apparatus
- toxik 3y agoSo clearly 2 applies to Scheme, 3 game engine programmers and kernel hackers, 5 most of us, and 6 almost all of us.
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoguess I'll start adding "Doctor" before my name now. if anyone questions it I'll say it has a different meaning when I use it
- z3dd 3y agoit's a thing already https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy
- kgeist 3y agoEtymologically, "engineer" originally meant "one who designs, constructs, or operates military works for attack or defence". I guess at some point some folks were also grumpy that the word was generalized to people who had no relation to military :)